2nd Saturday Civil War Series: Men of Color, to Arms! Frederick Douglass & USCT Recruiting with Kelly D. Mezurek

In Person in the Lincoln Gallery at ACFL&MH
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CarnegieCarnegie No Account Required!
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9370579279 Meeting ID: 937 057 9279

On March 7, 1863, The Anglo-African published the now well-known address by Frederick Douglass concerning the recruitment of Black men for the U.S. military, “Men of Color, to Arms!”. Throughout the war, the newspaper shared both the deeds and words of Douglass as he sought to support, and sometimes criticize, the war effort as it related to African Americans. This talk will use the articles in The Anglo-African as a lens to explore Douglass’s contributions as he fought for Black enlistment, equal pay, and fair treatment, and how he supported other African American contributions during the Civil War.

Kelly D. Mezurek is a historian whose work focuses on the Black men who served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) and the Union navy, both during the American Civil War and in their lives as veterans in the late-nineteenth century. Her book, For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops (The Kent State University Press, 2016), is a 2017 Ohioana Book Award nonfiction finalist. She has also published essays on the USCT who served as prison guards and Black veterans who resided in Midwestern soldier’s homes.

Mezurek, a professor of history, has been teaching in Northeastern Ohio universities for over twenty years. She is a member of the Ohio Humanities Speakers Bureau and served on the Ohio Civil War 150 Advisory Committee. She is currently working on an edited volume of private letters sent to and from Black soldiers and sailors during the Civil War.

2nd Saturday Lectures made possible by the Massey Charitable Trust